Simon Roberts

Security is a topic of ever increasing importance, and Java is regularly
touted as a secure platform. This talk investigates what this claim means,
what it does not mean, and how Java provides this secure basis for development.
The talk then discusses the security elements in the core APIs, and describes
their purposes and limitations. The talk closes with an overview of some
of the more commonly used additional security APIs and features that Java
offers for use in networked systems.

Recent years have seen a great deal of emphasis on pattern-oriented software
development, and few would argue that this approach has resulted in a broad
improvement in software quality and time to market. Most, if not all, of
these patterns actually reflect the problem-specific, or environment-specific,
application of a few very simple principles. This talk investigates these
principles and their relationship to many of the common patterns, with
a view to gaining a better understanding of why and when a particular pattern
might be appropriate or inappropriate.

Simon
Roberts acquired twelve years experience as a software engineer in scientific and control systems fields, writing in C, Modula-2, C++, and a variety of assembly languages. In the evenings, he pursued a passion for teaching with local colleges and universities. From 1995 to 2004, he worked as an instructor and course developer with the education group of Sun Microsystems. With Sun, he served as a team lead on Java certification projects, and developed and taught courses on many aspects of Java, including Jini, Architecture, and JVM internals. Simon now works as a freelance instructor and author, and is starting a new book project, “Head First Security” due to be released by O'Reilly in early 2005. Simon's previous books include Sun Certified Enterprise Architecture for J2EE Technology Study Guide, with Mark Cade, Prentice Hall 2002, and The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide with Philip Heller, Sybex.